I was still upset by the time the meeting over. I had to call Sat for ‘mental support’ before sleeping.

At 5 o’clock, when the bell ran, I woke up too and I could tell that the participants were a little shock and clueless on what was going on when they were told to only brush their teeth and went down to the activity hall immediately with only jacket (if they’re cold) and water bottle. The air-conds in the activity hall were blasted to the maximum speed to ensure that the participants felt cold and went up to grab their jackets/sweaters.

By 5.45am, the participants were asked to follow the committee to the busses outside the temple. 10 minutes later, I was up in the dormitory hall, curled inside my comfy sleeping bag, only waking at 10.30 in the morning.

Knowing that the participants’ only coming back at noon, I took my own sweet time showering; had breakfast with Michael, Febri and Claydist! (she paid us a visit in the morning of 3^rd day); wrapped up the fruit baskets nicely with Febri and did work. What a fruitful morning I had!

At noon, Xiao Thoong’s dad arrived with lunch and we went out to help taking out the food from his car. About 20 minutes later, the participants arrived and lunch started not long soon.

After lunch, I continued doing my work while the participants were split into two groups. When first group attended the group sharing with Sis Lee Yen in the dormitory, the second group had their Light-n-Easy session. 30 minutes later they swapped activity.

Then it was time for the Whisper from the Heart session. While participants got their questions answered, I got my curiosity answered on the visit to Rumah Sinar Harapan from WeiLoong, ChoonSin, HungJen and Jack.

I can still remember very well what they’ve said.

Entering the building with grills all high up, windows are grilled; cells for the violent/naughty residence; pungent urine and vomit smell upon entering; wet floor and long drains at the side – my mind was imagining what they saw in the morning as they described the place.

My heart sank when ChoonSin said how cold their hands were when she touched their hands. I couldn’t imagine how a hand can be so cold, it’s as tho they’re soulless.

They spoke of a residence who wanted so much attention from them that he sort of ‘harassed’ them. No wonder when I spoke to Kirks in the noon about the trip, he told me about a guy punching him. It must be the same guy, and when I inquired the rest on that, they nodded.

One of the teary moments shared was when WeiLoong pushed a guy on wheelchair aside because he couldn’t move and he was making distress sound. Trying to help the poor soul, he pushed him aside. At the same time, his phone rang and automatically he stepped out to answer his call. The wheelchair bounded guy made even louder noise and even waved after he was pushed aside. ChoonSin who was happened to be around there, was curiously on what was happening and when she realised that he was actually calling for WeiLoong as he wanted to thank him for his help. Seeing that WeiLoong was still on call with his back facing them, she raised her hand in acknowledgement and the guy became quiet.

The saddest part is of course the part where WeiLoong didn’t aware of the whole thing at all and when ChoonSin told him, he looked around but the guy wasn’t there anymore. The worst thing is he didn’t know who the guy is as he didn’t see his face at all…

When I heard that, my heart sank again. In life, people, including me are so preoccupied with stuffs till they often missed these significance moments… and when they realised it, they’re already gone.

Apart from the sadness, there are actually happy stories that can curve a smile on your face. Like how those who are able to walk would push those wheelchair bounded around, like how they would help each other when they’re in need.

Like the stories of a painter, a singer and a class monitor.

There’s a guy who’s not bodily perfect, paints his way to 3 digits salary (in USD) monthly using his toes! With that, he bought all the accessories in his room with his hard-earned money. He owns a plasma TV (and some Apple products too), now beat that!

I can’t really remember the story of singer. All I remembered was he can sing very well and often ‘hired’ to sing.

The class monitor is a very friendly person from the stories I heard from them. The chirpy side of her, made her the class monitor as she could remember each and every residence’s name and also their behaviors…

Speaking of which, I remember the story about a pencil lover. This pencil lover guy loves pencils so much that he would steal pencils from people. Wherever he went, he would have one or two pencils placed at his upper ears.

I would love to hear more stories from them but due to limited time as we need to start preparing for tonight’s event, the sharing was cut short and we were dismissed.

We went on doing preparation for that night’s event and each and everyone was seen doing something. We were that busy (phew!), until we didn’t know that it was already the time for dinner. Some couldn’t even step aside for dinner, and needed to be tapao-ed in for them, lol.

Luckily for me, I managed to finish my work justttt in time for dinner. Had dinner at the stairs with the crazeeee people where we discussed on this stupid statement: to have your favourite food in the plate first or last?

Believe me, when I said it was stupid cause there are soooo many weird answers, like “see mood loh” or “what if there are none of my favourite food in my plate?” or “I mix all and eat equally one wor”, when the answer supposed to be “first” or “last”, lol.

Funny enough, we even debated on which food on our plate was the best: the fried popiah or the netted popiah. We can really talk I tell you. Lol.

Then it was time to start the event. The participants were asked to observe silent in dark at the dining hall, while the committees went around checking out the props; making sure that they’re in place.

By 8.30pm, we started our IXP. My first IXP being a committee and I tell you, I damn tension sialllll! Not gonna say much on how the IXP works tho each and every IXP is unique, but I can assure you that the participants would definitely feel different after undergoing IXP.

After IXP ended, it was time for closing ceremony. Not to say that we were going to leave the camp the next morning, but it was more appropriate to do a closing ceremony at night, especially when the emotion was running high after IXP.

We had the thank-you-gifts-giving ceremony; we had the groups cheering out loud, we had Thai participants entertained us with dances and singing… and the best of all, we did our all-time-favourite cheers, the tepuk lenglui, tepuk lengchai, tepuk eo-a-eo.

The moment they did the tepuk thingy, a sense of familiarity swept me and telling me “This is the camp where I came from”.

Why the claps?

Because all the claps, cheers and songs made me lost my voice when I was a participant back then. Don’t know why I was so semangat in doing so until I lost my voice but it’s totally unintentional. I think my voice is very fragile.

Don’t pray pray wei, I was called the husky-voiced girl back then, k! Rofl.

And I hated IXP back then cz the moment I opened my mouth, everyone knew who am I d. -.-“””

XiaoThoong did a great job with MC-ing. It was so freaking hilarious, and we couldn’t stopped laughing with/at/along her. Few memorable moments that should be highlighted here are the time when she gave people new names (I weren’t the only victim, lol) and the time she called out the names whose birthdates fall in month of December and January.

After the closing ceremony ended, it was time for unstoppable, countless photography sessions.

Oh well, here’s a quick recap of what happened from yesterday night till this afternoon. All photos are taken with my iPhone4 as I decided not to bring my DSLR there.

BlogFest. Asia 2010 started on the 1st of October with a Penang Heritage tour for the participants. I couldn’t join that as I was working, and decided to go for the welcome dinner at Queen Elizabeth II (tho I have steamboat+bbq party to attend at 5.30pm).

So we reached QEII fashionably late at 8.30pm and hesitate to enter as we saw few guys with BlogFest tags walked out of the area. We thought the event has already ended but when inquired at the registration counter, we were asked to enter and enjoy the food.

So we did!

The place was totally packed with people. We thought we wouldn’t have meet any friends here, but we were so wrong. Spotted familiar faces like Criz Lai, David Lee, Calvyn Lee and Ah Lok and I was so happy to meet them as the last time I saw them was 2 years ago. Some even longer!

We chatted a little with Criz, and upon realising that Satkuru still hasn’t eat yet, we politely excuse ourselves and walked towards the food section despite me being so full from the early dinner earlier. The food looked tempting, but the fact that the fishball were sitting at the peak of my esophagus totally turned me off. I waited for Satkuru to get his food before looking for a place to sit.

I need to highlight this: While looking for an empty table/spot for us, I saw a man sit-sleeping on a couch in the corner of the room. That time I thought to myself – oh my, I hope the event wouldn’t be so bored that I would be ended up sleeping at the corner of the room like him.

We finally secured our seats, and I totally enjoyed the sea breeze and the bottomless orange juice, while Satkuru had his late dinner. Then Emily came and she brought her line manager along with her too. Thankfully we have more company, or else we would have leave the place immediately after Sat finished the dinner as we were bored.

We didn’t know if we supposed to be openly go around introducing ourselves or what; but judging from the crowd – everyone has the group of their own. Also, we were hoping that there will be simple ice-breaking sessions where all have the chance to know each other “legally”.

You know, like how the quick date works. Everyone has one minute to know each other? Call it dodgy, but I would say that’s the efficient way of ice-breaking. Lol!

If two is a couple, three is a crowd; four is a family then 6 is a party!

The amount of people at our table got more as some guys that Emily and Sat know came to our table and spoke to them, which literally made me became quiet. I can’t be butting into their conversations when I was totally clueless on what they spoke about. So, I began to feel a little tad bored until… I met my schoolmate, Maylin that I haven’t seen for years! What a coincidence!

Instead of knowing more new blogger friends, it turned out to be a catching up session between us. She came with Amy, a close friend of hers and my, that girl could really talk a lot! I ended up ditching Sat and yakking with Maylin and Amy instead. Lol!

As it was getting late and I had to travel all the way back to Butterworth, I politely made my exit and went home for a good night sleep.

The next morning, I had to drag my lazy pigu out of the bed as it was raining and the room was cold. How nice it would be if I could hide under the blanket and sleep for 1-2 hours more on such weather. Still 15 minutes later, I managed to wake up and drove all the way to Sat’s place to pick him up before heading towards Wawasan Open University where the BlogFest.Asia is held.

Again, we reached late and missed almost half of the talk by Prof Peter Herford.

His slides consists of photos of robots, solar aircrafts, and even bra masks, which got us all roared in laughter.

Half an hour later, we had our brunch break where we were treated to curry-puffs and popiah. The popiah tastes so good that we went to have second serving after everyone took their share.

Came the 2nd session where 4 panelists (which were earlier encouraged to volunteer) to talk on social networking sites and micro-blogging: Synergy or threat to the blogosphere?

I actually did live blogging at that time, and like I mentioned earlier, the whole entry disappeared when I want to save it. *frowns*.

The 4 panelists are from Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia and Myanmar. They gave out interesting facts to us, like the installation of Internet in Myanmar costs USD2000 and Internet usage of the speed 512kbs costs USd150 monthly totally made us went WHOAAAAAA!!! in unison. To be frank, I didn’t know whether I should be thankful for Streamyx services, or continue condemning the service in hope for better quality broadband.

Also, the first Cambodian blogger is actually the ex-king of the country! Interesting right?

They even debated if Facebook and Twitter are threat to blogs. Personally, I don’t think it would reach that alarming state. Facebook is a social networking platform which people uses to keep in touch with their friends while Twitter only allows 140 characters. What can one actually blog about in 140 characters?

The forum was interesting, but I hate those with big camera and blinding flashes. I went @_@ many times because there’s this guy in a row in front of me accidentally fired flashes that bounced into my direction. -.-”

Check out the chatbox. Sat played a prank on Emily. Lol!

By noon, everyone was ushered to the cafeteria at the ground floor where we had a plate of nasi kandar. After lunch, we were given options to join one of three classes available per session. Sat, Emily and I decided to enter room 2 since the topic is quite interesting: Tactical Technology Collective workshop 1: Video screening of “10 Tactics for turning information into action.”

The video took 50 minutes long, it was very informative and eye opener on how people would use media stream to highlight certain issues/activity. What really impressed me is the part where the human right activists uploaded and tagged videos of abusive onto a very popular tourism spot. Never would I thought that people would go until that far to voice out an issue. A totally eye opener for me!

However, the fact that I didn’t have enough sleep the night earlier and my sitting posture made me couldn’t really enjoy the whole video. By the time they talked about the 7th tactic, I had already yawned and changed my sitting position for the umpteenth time and started to have slight headache.

Then we moved on to the next session. We entered room 11, for an open discussion on Journalistic values for documenting events via your blogs, led by Ms Masjaliza Hamzah. She wrote out 3 interesting questions and garnered our opinions about those questions. First everyone was quite shy to speak out; but once touched on the concern issue, one after another just spoke out like that.

Somewhere along the heated discussion, Sat, Emily and I were discreetly mute-Facetiming with Aaron and Jess, two KL Bloggers who wanted to ‘be’ at BlogFest.Asia.

This photo was taken after the second session.

After the second sessions, Sat, Emily and I decided to head home since all three of us were getting tired. Else we would have join in the talk given by Mr Chan of Exabytes in room 6 on Speed Up Your Blog With Content Delivery Network (CDN). Earlier while driving down to WOU, Sat had briefly explained to me on CDN where he said it would help to load the blog in a blink of an eye.

I learn a lot of things despite not be able to stay until the last session.

I’ve been BlogFested, have you? Lolololol!

But Chinese New Year is not only about all that, it’s about giving back to the society too. Afterall, doing good deeds during the auspicious month is encouraged and applauded by all. Will accumulate good karma ler!

Every year, my parents would pay a visit to old folks’ home to give angpow to the elders. If my uncle and aunt drop by Penang, they will follow my parents there too.

This year, we went to Rumah Sejahtera Permatang Tinggi. According to mum, this old folks’ home is not as lavish as others and is managed by local council, so it’s good to donate there.

Before going there, we quickly packed about 100 packets of angpows. I asked mum why not we donate rice and biscuits to them instead of giving money. Mum told that they did few years ago but was told by the home’s management to give money instead as they received way too much donation in that form.

True enough, when we reached there, I saw plenty of rice, oil, noodle packet, oranges – all form of food at the side of the entrance.

Dad registered himself at the counter and was told that the elderies were having brunch at the canteen.

However, we were given greenlight on giving angpow to them there.

So mum took half of the angpow and passed to bro since he wanted to pass some out too. Together both of them went around and gave angpow.

Most of the elderies were quiet and reluctantly extended their hand upon being given angpow. I guess there’s a sense of dignity there. I mean, imagine someone younger give you angpow, surely you’ll feel a little bit paiseh. Like that loh…

It took only 10 minutes to give out all the angpows. Then we went out to look and admire at the handiworks done by the elders.

After that it was time to leave. I think we spent like about half an hour there only, which is potongstim to me as I thought there will be blending and talking to the elders like what I did during guiding days. The situation of leaving after donation seems like the right thing to do, since we didn’t know what else to do after that. Hmm.

Whatever it is, it was fun visiting the old folks home. I deeply believe that everyone should visit old folks home at least once. After all, a visit there will somehow make one to cherish their parents and elderies more.

Then my friends, I believe you’re frickle minded.

To be frank, it’s totally okay to be inconsistent over the things I stated above. There are absolutely nothing wrong and normal in doing so. It’s not that you’re endangering other people’s life with your infirmness.

Even I myself am a fickle minded person. I would keep changing my clothes until I found the suitable one before going out. I would come out with many travel itineraries when planning a trip because one moment I think itinerary A is good, 5 minutes later I came out with another itinerary that would wow me off!

So, as I said earlier, fickle minded is not a bad thing. It actually pushes you to choosing the best among all.

But what I can’t stand is those fickle minded drivers. They would weave in from one lane to another and back to the same lane. The worst among all would be the sudden lane change – it’s so life endangering you know! -.-“

This is what happened to me in the morning somewhere before the midspan. It was drizzling in the morning so cars moved slowly (about 10-15km/h) on Penang bridge as it was the peak hour. I was in the middle lane; obviously surrounded by cars. Knowing that one couldn’t go fast at such situation, I just relaxed and drove at that speed while listening to my favourite radio station.

Now, this particular car, a Kenari who was in the slow lane, suddenly went into my lane right in front of me when there’s not much gap between me and the car in front of me. Of course, I was rudely disturbed of my morning drive, but since she (yes it’s a lady driver -.-“) forcefully went into my lane, I slowed down a little and let her in.

She was driving more towards the left and judging from that, I speculated that she intended to go back to the slow lane. True enough, she went back to that lane and I was joyful as one less car in front of me on my lane, means my lane could go faster. Bear in mind, all 3 lanes were full with slow moving cars.

One minute later, she signaled again and went to my lane since there’s a gap between me and the car in front of me and went back to slow lane lane not long after that.

I was like wtfish? I totally don’t understand why she wants to weave in and out as all cars were moving at the same speed. It’s not that by changing lane could get her further. -.-“

Furthermore I don’t like following closely the car in front. I don’t support tailgating. But I went a little bit closer to make the gap smaller to prevent her from coming in again.

Believe it or not, she actually managed to squeeze her way in because of Kenari is pendek and has no butt. Grr!

Enough is enough. I foresee that she’ll be keeping switching lanes but I also know that somewhere near the midspan the cars on slow lane would actually go faster than rest. A look at my side mirror, I noticed a big opening on the slow lane. Apparently, the red van slowed down after seeing the Kenari driver kept changing course.

So, I went in the gap and sped my way to the front just like what I’ve predicted. Muahaha! Victorious!

But seriously, how can one be so fickle minded on road? Don’t they know that they might endanger other road users if they just simply go into another lane without really looking?

If you’re fickle minded at road, please CHANGE! Don’t keep changing your judgment when you’re driving.

Mum told me to get one (since it’s free) for dad’s company. So I went over and asked for one. Here’s the conversation between me and the lady there.

Me : Hi, how to get one?

Her : I just need a business card.

Me : But I didn’t bring. (Why would I bring out my dad’s business card? -.-” )

Her : Oh, nevermind. You can fill in the form here.

So I took one and wrote down dad company’s details but stopped at the part where it requires the telephone number and fax. Somehow I can’t seem to remember the office’s numbers, so I asked mum about it. The lady heard me asking my mum on the number, and sort of giving some shocked+discomfort face.

After I finished filling in the form, I gave this to her and then I asked for the book. She just pointed to the a stack at the side and gave me the ‘take-it-yourself-it’s-there. I obviously didn’t expect such gesture as I saw her and her partner graciously giving out books to those who handed over their business cards instead of asking them to take by themselves. Were I being treated differently because she regarded me as a phony or someone who wants whatever free stuffs? I wouldn’t have get THAT heavy book if it weren’t for my mum’s instruction. I wouldn’t have just go over there and talk to her nicely for one. But I got this because I took one on my dad’s behalf?

Or maybe it’s because I’m prettier than her! (Someone asked me to think optimistic especially on such incident)

With that (latter) thought in my head, I took one from the stack and walked off.

Anyway, Monday is an off day for me! *woohoo*

Me : Hello.

X : Hello. Are you Miss (my name)?

Me : Yes, speaking.

X : (my name) ah, our bank is giving a gold card to you. It’s free for life and everything is already done, now we just need maiden name which is your mum’s name.

Me : Err. I don’t want a credit card.

X : Why miss? It’s free for life and you can keep it even if you don’t want to use it.

Me : Free? But the RM50 government tax? I thought I’ll be charged RM50 for a new card even if I didn’t use it.

X : Yalah. That one we can’t do anything. But once you get up to 100,000 points (if I’m not mistaken she said 100,000 or was it 10,000?), you can waive off the RM50.

Me : Yalar. But the thing is right now I’ll be charged RM50 first. The waive off one is next year right?

X : Or you can keep the card for 6 months and then cancel it off if you like to. (starting to sound desperate)

Me : No, I don’t want be deducted RM50 like that. 6 months and 1 year is the same to me.

She paused awhile before continuing, “what card are you using miss?“

Me : I don’t have any card.

X : (surprised) Really? None?

Me : Yes, I don’t have. I use cash.

X : Oh. You sure you don’t want a card. Card will be a lot more convenient. Just swipe, no need bring cash around.

Me : Yes, very sure. I prefer cash.

X : Okay then, miss. Thank you!

Me : Okay. Bye.

The lady is very persistent, but unfortunately she couldn’t earn commission from getting a new card member as I’m firmer in my decision. If there’s no RM50 charge then I’ll gladly take the plastic. But since there’s such law, then the plastic gotta go. Haha.

Btw, Happy Wesak Day. Here’s a famous Buddha quote that I like.

To enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to one’s family, to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and control one’s own mind. If a man can control his mind he can find the way to Enlightenment, and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him.

True – to enjoy good health and happiness and peace, then I must first say NO to credit card. Haha!

Wenyan went to Cambodia 6 months before mine. While vacationing, she was saddened with the fact that the children in Cambodia lost their parents due to war (with Khmer Rouge) and landmines. Hence, she vowed to donate the remaining USD50 from her trip to the orphanage. However she couldn’t place the donation herself in the airport, thus asking me to donate on her behalf.

She did tell me to bank in the money to the orphanage of her choice (which she included in) – if we couldn’t go to the orphanage or see any donation box for children welfare.

However, I couldn’t do so as by the time we finished our tour in Angkor, the bank already closed.

So, Sat told our tour guide, Siya about Wenyan’s intention of donating money to orphanage. Lucky for us, Siya’s sister is working in NGO for children’s welfare and he called up his sister for advice.

I can’t recall if he asked us to pass the money to his sister or not, but I think we told him that we want to personally give the money to the orphanage and I added in that I don’t want the money to fall into wrong hands.

Siya understood and told us that we could stop by an orphanage centre on the way back from Prasat Kravan.

But then, we went back directly to our lodge. On the way back, Siya told us that there is one nearby our lodge and suggested us to buy rice from the market for them instead of donating money.

Which made us asked him, “how much is a bag of rice?“

“USD50 per bag of 50kg.”

Which was then the decision of chipping in the money to USD100 to buy 2 bags of rice arised. I mean it doesn’t look good going all the way to the orphanage just to send in a bag of rice. Afterall, we as a human aren’t made of cold heart – should do charity if we could. So the suggestion of everyone paid equally of about USD7 or more if one insisted came up too.

Thinking back, contributing RM24.50 to charity is like so little only! –”

Everyone agreed, and off we went to our lodge for quick shower and dressed up for that night was our last night in Cambodia.

Since the guys were faster in showering as compared to the girls, the guys went to the market with Siya and our van driver to get the rice. Which was a good thing as we could rest a little longer. Kaka!

However we weren’t that slow. After we were done, we walked down and waited for the van.

Though a minor dispute happened – but we got our rice! And off we went to the orphanage with excited heart. I don’t know bout the rest, but I know I was super excited in meeting them. Kaka!

The orphanage is situated opposite a paddy field, a few streets away from our lodge, well hidden from the main road. The orphanage itself is a stilted kampung house with extended building at the back, and a big land for the kids to run around.

Mr van driver (I feel so bad for not remembering his name ) parked his van at the side of the fence and the guys quickly unloaded the rice bags after getting down from the van.

The kids were playing in front of the kampung house and when we reached, they stopped and stood in a line, looking at us either shyly or cheekily.

The ‘father’ of the orphanage walked to us after knowing he has visitors. Seeing the bags of rice, he kept saying thank you nonstop and bowing at us - as though we were Japanese. Lol.

He then signalled the kids to say HELLO to us!

Which was rather funny as they repeated it after we hello-ed at them back. Then the owner explained to us about the orphanage. Took us for a little tour around his ‘castle’. He used to be a tour guide, but knowing that the kids roamed around the cities and having no place to cover their head and sleep, he decided to open up an orphanage and went around the market and roads taking kids in. One of the boys is a victim of landmine who lost one of his legs. One of the girls is tested positive for HIV and she doesn’t even know about it. They keep it a secret from her and the rest of the kids because they want her to have a normal life and not being outcast by the rest.

My heart saddens upon hearing that – that’s why I can still remember all these details though it has been more than a year.

He asked us if we want to look around the area. Gladly we said yes! while Siya waited for us patiently at the water well with our van driver. Yes, they have their own well like the kampung house in Malaysia! Haha!

He led us to the kitchen, and introduced us to his cooks and other caretakers. If not mistaken there were 2 ladies in the kitchen, cooking a big pot of rice and soup.

He then explained what the children normally ate. And told us that the 2 bags of rice we donated could last them 2 weeks.

2 WEEKS?! We repeated, astonishingly.

He said, yes. 2 weeks. Because rice is their staple food and they have about 17 kids and 4 caretakers to feed. That’s why 2 weeks.

Seriously, after hearing that I wish I could donate another bag of rice.

He then led us up to the ladies bedroom.

The place is small, but surprisingly neat! Unlike my room! Haha! There are 2 types of bed in it. A king and a queen size bed. If not mistaken, the lady caretakers and the 4 young girls sleep on the King size bed while the younger boys sleep on the queen size bed.

But I know that the owner aka caretaker and the few older boys sleep in the room downstairs.

After a quick look and snaps by the rest (I didn’t bring my DSLR out, therefore the pictures here all stolen with permission from the Satkuru, Aaron and Emily!), we went down.

There is a hut in front of the kampung house and a vegetable farm at the side of the house.

The hut is the place where the children learn and study after school. Mr Caretaker/Owner told us that he taught the children himself when he’s free, but sometimes if the visitors drop by, they would teach the children English too! He even asked us if we wanna teach the kids awhile. But because we were in a hurry (need to go somewhere else later), that’s why we couldn’t spend much time there. Or else I would love to mingle around with the children and teach them a little bit of Mathematics! Haha!

Besides being taught by Mr Caretaker/Owner and visitors, the children, especially the girls also learn Apsara dance steps once a week from a volunteer who is a dancer.

As for the vegetable farm, they grow their own vegetable to reduce their marketing expenses and also to instill hardworking attitude in the kids.

Done with the introduction and explanation, Mr Caretaker/Owner then asked the kids to sing songs to us.

Which they did!

They sang few songs. One is the Hello Hello song, which everyone knows and we sang the ‘hello hello’ part too. Lol. While singing they clapped hands too, which we followed too! Some of them sang louder and louder until at a certain point, it seemed like shouting rather than singing. Lol.

They then sing Khmer songs which we didn’t understand but really appreciated that. I wish Wenyan could be there to witness all these, but since she can’t, we took numerous videos which Sat joined them together into one!

With heavy hearts, we said goodbye to the kids as it was the time for us to run and head to our next destination. Before leaving, we took a group photo with them!

Which supposed to be nice… until Mr Caretaker/Owner asked the kids to do the YEAHHHHH! Pose! Kantoi kao kao. Aaron’s face totally BLOCKED!

Here’s the video Sat compiled.

Back in Penang now. The weekend passed by very quickly!!!

In such a harsh world nowadays where people would just mind own’s business, I actually ‘witnessed’ something different on the bus back to Penang.

Boarded ‘Nice’ bus at the old KTM station. With me on the bus, there are two Malay metrosexual guys, 2 Chinese aunties with a young boy, 2 Malay aunties with a young girl and a lone guy sitting at the back.

The bus picked up the second batch of passengers at the kl sentral and up boarded the 2 angmoh girls. Everyone’s eyes was at the girls as they mouthed ‘1.. 2.. Ah, there 5!’

Their seats were behind the 2 metrosexual guys and beside mine. The bus then moved and the bus was silent again, except the 2 guys who were chatting.

Suddenly one of the guys turned to the back and asked the girls where were they heading to.

One reluctantly replied, “well, our ticket is to Alor Star. We wanna go to Langkawi, we asked the guy at the counter on the way to get there and he said nearest would be Alor Star.”

I was thinking – ok. Correct but wouldnt the day be burnt if reach there late? Unless they’re there for long. Might as well stay at Penang island and have a look at Penang.

Then the guy said, “Ah. Wouldn’t the journey be longer? Moreover you need to take a cab from Alor Star all the way to Kuala Kedah.“

Could see that the girls’ faces changed.

“You know, you could board the ferry to Langkawi from Penang itself. It would be nearer.”

The girls’ expression changed again. I was thinking - from Penang to Langkawi got frequent ferry service or not.

“Oh, could you tell me how to get there? I need to write it down,” she asked, searching for pen and paper in her handbag.

“You can get down from the butterworth bus terminal. The ferry terminal to the Penang island is just beside the bus terminal. And it’ll take like 19-20 minutes.”

The girl quickly wrote what he said.

“Don’t worry. Later I’ll show you the way to the ferry terminal.“

The girls looked very relief.

He then continued, “once reach there, just ask around for ferry terminal to langkawi and they’ll show you the way. It’s just like 10minutes walk to the port.”

The girls thanked the guy nonstop for this valuable information. He then asked on where the girls hail from and why they chose to come to Malaysia.

Which made me think – foreigners come here, obviously to see our country. Somemore asked why Malaysia.

From what i heard, the girls are actually English teachers in Korea, came Malaysia to escape the cold in Korea. And the guy who offered the information is actually a chambering lawyer.

And then the bus turned silent. Soon, all fell asleep including me. It was a raining + cloudy + sunny journey back. I kept waking up and sleep back. Which was good, made the 4 hours journey shorter.

When the bus stopped near the Butterworth bus terminal, the 2 angmohs followed the 2 guys towards the ferry terminal while I stayed there waiting for my parents to get me, hoped that they would get the ferry to Langkawi that day. Didn’t know why I feel good knowing that there are still people willing to help out to there who needs.

I just checked the ferry schedule from Penang to Langkawi, it seems like they’re only ferrying in the morning. Whilst from Kuala Kedah and Kuala Perlis, the ferry would be operating from 7 in the morning till 7 at night. If they didn’t listen to them, they might be able to get on the last  ferry.

I guess the girls will be checking out Penang island tonight.

]]> http://phingelicious.com/2009/12/to-langkawi-from-kuala-kedah-or-penang/feed/ 2 http://phingelicious.com/2009/07/you-so-damn-disrespectable/ http://phingelicious.com/2009/07/you-so-damn-disrespectable/#comments Sat, 11 Jul 2009 03:24:19 +0000 angeline http://phingelicious.com/?p=892 Don’t let me get you wrong. That sentence is quoted from MJ’s Tabloid Junkie – which of course is ‘quite relevant’ to today’s post. Don’t worry. I am not in that much anger. Haha!

The scenario happened at the parking area. You saw two empty bays – one for the car in front, and another one for you. You waited for the car in front to park. But judging from the way the front car did few times of reversing to get into the lot, you felt that that driver will take a longer time. Therefore, you decided to drive into the other lot first. When you wanted to get off your car, the car parked in and immediately opened up the door and gave you stares. Worst of all, the stares came from someone of higher position than you.

Things like happened everyday and everywhere. I’m pretty sure everyone will do this too. I don’t get it when people decide to give stares because they’re better than you. I strongly believe when you’re on the road, everyone is equal. Plus, I gave you ample time to go in. Since you’re slow in parking your car, I go in first. Why the stare? Not like I masuk your lot pun.

Ok. Enough of ‘staring’ story. Let’s talk about smile. The song that made everyone ‘sang’ at Facebook after the Michael Jackson’s Memorial Service.

I’ve heard the rendition by Nat King Cole, by Michael Buble, by Westlife but never Michael Jackson’s. In fact, I never heard MJ’s version that song before. You must be very thinking I’m from which kampung right? Haha.

I remained jakun until yesterday when Suci passed me a pendrive containing 4 MJ’s albums. Immediately after getting them, I threw them on my wmplayer and songs like Ben, Billie Jean, Remember the Time started playing. Suddenly I heard a familiar tune….

SMILE!

and I was stunned for a while. I never knew that MJ re-sung this song. His version is so endearing and warm. Made me wanna listen to it over and over again. Made me wanna crawl to my piano and play it out loud. Ahhh~*

Maybe I should head to my piano now.

*Smile.. when your heart is aching… smile…*

I was walking to the toilet area to wash my hand after eating a piece of fried cempedak. At a table near the toilet there sat 3 morlolola workers. I noticed 2 of them were looking at me - don’t question me on how I know. I know because I saw them looking, okay. So after washing my hand, I walked back to my table. As I was walking, one of the morlolola worker said,

“Sui meh? Okay okay nia…”

MAMAFISH BETUI… I WALKED BY FOR YOU TO GRADE ONE IZIT?!! 

Of cz I am slightly bothered with the statement. I’m a girl, I need to be told pretty can. Haha. Kidding lar. Now, WHAT REALLY BOTHERS ME is he said that out loud enough in front of me. I mean, hello? Use your brain – if you want to say something about that person, say discreetly. Not at the ‘frequency’ where the person can be heard. Not when the person is WALKING BY. 

Moreover, they’re guys. And I thought guys normally won’t mengumpat. Well, they proved me wrong.

Don’t give me grandmother story about maybe he’s talking about other thing or other people. He was looking at me, before uttering that statement. If you still insist that it’s okay, then I got nothing to say but hope that the same thing that happened to me will happen to you too. Have a nice day.